How Long to Release Funds after Completion?

EssexHebridean

glennevis said:

Quote

"I would do that via email to his business email address, and back it up with a phone call checking it has been received and understood."

I would leave 48 hours before making any call.
Email communications are legally deemed delivered in 48 hours.

Should it be undeliverable you would receive a delivery failure report from the mail server almost immediately, at which point a pretty urgent call would be deemed appropriate action.

I've never yet come across a solicitor who wouldn't expect to get an email immediately, and in this situation leaving it for 48 hours is not really appropriate - holding client's money in this way without permission is off the scale in terms of failure in professional conduct. 

babyblade41 said:

I presume this company has an accounts dept, usually the acting solicitor doesn't have a lot to do with the accounting side. 

If you call the company today & ask to speak to the accounts this should by pass your friend & end the worry

User1977 is correct. It is the acting solicitor who is responsible for telling the accounts department what to pay - accounts cannot send anything from Client Account without sign-off from the responsible fee earner. These days smaller firms often use a third party company for accounting anyway. 

Flugelhorn

propertyrental said:

It's usual to get a Completion Statement before Completion.

By then, the conveyancer should know what costs are involved, whether mortgage redemption, estate agent fees, his own fees, or something thing else.

If there is something highly unusual about the transactions (sale or purchase), he or his accounts dept should be able to tell you what it is that they are concerned about eg some as yet unquantified cost.

And should be able to retain a suitable amount to cover this and release the bulk to you.

Definitely should get this - only time I could get one was a sale involving an offset mortgage and the bank wouldn't agree the redemption figure until the morning of completion (presumably in case I had taken lots more money out the day before) - solicitor produced a draft one with the estimated figs for the mortgage (which turned out to be spot on). Completion ended up being a little later in the day so funds arrived with me the next morning, solicitor contacted me to say they had missed the transfer deadline on the actual completion day.

babyblade41

EssexHebridean said:

glennevis said:

Quote

"I would do that via email to his business email address, and back it up with a phone call checking it has been received and understood."

I would leave 48 hours before making any call.
Email communications are legally deemed delivered in 48 hours.

Should it be undeliverable you would receive a delivery failure report from the mail server almost immediately, at which point a pretty urgent call would be deemed appropriate action.

I've never yet come across a solicitor who wouldn't expect to get an email immediately, and in this situation leaving it for 48 hours is not really appropriate - holding client's money in this way without permission is off the scale in terms of failure in professional conduct. 

babyblade41 said:

I presume this company has an accounts dept, usually the acting solicitor doesn't have a lot to do with the accounting side. 

If you call the company today & ask to speak to the accounts this should by pass your friend & end the worry

User1977 is correct. It is the acting solicitor who is responsible for telling the accounts department what to pay - accounts cannot send anything from Client Account without sign-off from the responsible fee earner. These days smaller firms often use a third party company for accounting anyway. 

I  thought maybe the acting solicitor may have informed the accounts  dept & there was a mistake somewhere within the dept.

It was a way round the possible confrontation with the friend , but understand the reasoning behind your reply 

Anyhow it is not customary to have to wait this long & totally unacceptable 

EssexHebridean

babyblade41 said:

EssexHebridean said:

glennevis said:

Quote

"I would do that via email to his business email address, and back it up with a phone call checking it has been received and understood."

I would leave 48 hours before making any call.
Email communications are legally deemed delivered in 48 hours.

Should it be undeliverable you would receive a delivery failure report from the mail server almost immediately, at which point a pretty urgent call would be deemed appropriate action.

I've never yet come across a solicitor who wouldn't expect to get an email immediately, and in this situation leaving it for 48 hours is not really appropriate - holding client's money in this way without permission is off the scale in terms of failure in professional conduct. 

babyblade41 said:

I presume this company has an accounts dept, usually the acting solicitor doesn't have a lot to do with the accounting side. 

If you call the company today & ask to speak to the accounts this should by pass your friend & end the worry

User1977 is correct. It is the acting solicitor who is responsible for telling the accounts department what to pay - accounts cannot send anything from Client Account without sign-off from the responsible fee earner. These days smaller firms often use a third party company for accounting anyway. 

I  thought maybe the acting solicitor may have informed the accounts  dept & there was a mistake somewhere within the dept.

It was a way round the possible confrontation with the friend , but understand the reasoning behind your reply 

Anyhow it is not customary to have to wait this long & totally unacceptable 

The fee earner would still need to know about it if this were the case as it is a major breach and would get pulled on the next audit. I do get your reasoning for the suggestion though - and in many (most even?) other environments it would be a very logical one! 

I think in this instance the friendship needs to be put firmly to one side unfortunately - there are far bigger concerns here if the situation is as stated. 

Xenon

It is simple

What is more important to you

10,000's of money owed or your friendship !

MikeJXE

It's Friday tomorrow you need to pull yourself together and pick up the phone or you will have another weekend to get through

There is obviously something not right here and the longer you leave it the worse it might become then you will be jumping on here and asking what do I do now ? When everyone has given you advice that is make contact, friend or not. 

EssexHebridean

Xenon said:

It is simple

What is more important to you

10,000's of money owed or your friendship !

It’s not that simple I’m afraid - there is a bigger issue here around the handling of client funds. For that purpose it is entirely irrelevant that there is a friendship involved. If the solicitor under discussion here is a fee earner in a firm it is vital that the partners (or other partners) in the  firm are aware of this issue as it could give them a significant problem if they get an SRA inspection! 

OP - can you update us on where you are at with this and what progress has been made do you think? 

onemouseplace

Thanks for the advice everyone - I just wanted to update quickly to say that I have (after a bit more chasing) spoken to my solicitor and the money should be being transferred back shortly.  I am confident that it wasn't anything nefarious, just a combination of some people being a bit crap and an abundance of caution.  

I am still a bit annoyed about it (and would think twice about using this firm again) but I'd be grateful if this could be left to drop down the board now as, with the dates and set of circumstances, it is fairly identifiable to the interested parties!

comeandgo

Ah, the cheque is in the post answer.